40 Things The Isaiah Thomas-Kyrie Irving Trade Means

Dashiell Nusbaum
Aug 23, 2017 · 6 min read

It means alot.

  1. The Celtics lost this trade.
  2. The Cavs won this trade.
  3. The Cavaliers are trying to shake things up and are seeing if a different, albeit roughly as talented lineup can somehow help Lebron win a championship.
  4. The Cavaliers think that their only chance at keeping Lebron is by winning a championship this year. Otherwise, he’ll be gone next summer. The Cavaliers are ready to extend Thomas if they win a championship, but will easily let him walk, alongside the King, if they don’t. Letting them go would clear lots of cap for Cleveland. They’re readying for a rebuild, the additions of Zizic, the 2018 Nets First, and Crowder prove it. They managed to prepare to rebuild while improving their team.
  5. This is why they won the trade.
  6. Boston lost the trade. (There is such thing as a win-win or a lose-lose trade. I don’t like how, with just about every trade, people feel the need to declare a winner and a loser. But with this trade, there is one.)
  7. The Celtics starting lineup will be Irving-Hayward-Brown-Morris-Horford, per Shams Charania.
  8. If you doubted before, you can’t deny it any longer: There is a Woj-Shams cold war.
  9. The two traded blows throughout the night, getting closer and closer to breaking the news, with Shams finally announcing that the trade had been completed.
  10. They want you to think they’re just doing their jobs. They aren’t. Shams probably has some version of Westbrook’s cupcakes so advanced that we haven’t been able to decipher it yet. Woj is trying to justify that ESPN wasn’t taking the easy way out. Something’s brewing.
  11. Back to the Celtics: They lost the trade. Other than Hayward, they lost the summer, giving up Bradley (overhyped by Boston fans, underrated by the rest of the league), Crowder (and all the versatility he brings with him), Thomas (even though they got Irving, IT, was just so Boston), Zizic (supposed to be their rebounding big for the future), and the Brooklyn pick.
  12. It definitely means Boston, and a whole bunch of other teams, think Lebron is leaving this summer, unless the Cavaliers win the title.
  13. This is clear because the move was specifically designed to put Boston in a position to win in 2019.
  14. And this is clear for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s clear because the trade shows something else important: the Celtics weren’t planning on paying Thomas this upcoming summer. They went with a younger player under a longer contract in Kyrie Irving. They weren’t going to have Thomas as their starting point in 2019.
  15. It’s clear because it means they’re hoping Jaylen Brown can take the leap in year three (given few players make large improvements in their sophomore year, and it’s much more common for NBA players to have huge performance jumps in their third or fourth season. They’re starting him. They obviously hope for improvement, but on a timetable.)
  16. It’s clear because there’s no way they think that a team starting Sophomore Jaylen Brown at the three and Marcus Morris at the four can win or even make the finals this year, especially not with Lebron in the way.
  17. A final point to prove they’re readying for the 2018–2019 season is that Boston showed they are done going all out for the distant future. They gave up the Brooklyn pick and Zizic, showing they aren’t committing to any more long-term development and signaling the end of the Danny Ainge assets era.
  18. Did you hear that? The end of the Danny Ainge assets era. Thank god. Celtics fans may have just gotten slightly less annoying (just kidding).
  19. While they may think Jaylen Brown will improve by the 2018–2019 season, surely they don’t think an Kyrie Irving-Gordon Hayward-(Improved) Jaylen Brown-Marcus Morris-Al Horford lineup can beat the Warriors lineup of death.
  20. This means Boston is going to go after a big-name Power Forward this upcoming year, or next summer.
  21. It could also mean they’re going after a big-name Center, and sliding Horford to the four.
  22. So who could it be? It seems unlikely the Celtics still have the assets to trade for Anthony Davis, and it seems unlikely the Pelicans falter so much this season they decide they need to trade them, but Boston still has some young players. If the stars align, Boston could trade some of their own picks, the lakers first rounder, Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, a few draft-and-stash guys, etc. It would take a miracle, but Boston may have the assets to do it.
  23. Damn. It’s not the end of the Ainge assets era, is it.
  24. Some other guys the Celtics could go after in free agency are: Brook Lopez, Demarcus Cousins, DeAndre Jordan, LaMarcus Aldridge. (They could also go after Paul George or Carmelo Anthony but it seems more likely they get a big)
  25. It means the Warriors are the reason for everything. Everything is about competing with them, or waiting them out and competing in the distant future.
  26. It means teams will spend this upcoming season doing everything in their power to get Lebron on their team.
  27. (Even if many NBA teams and insiders don’t, I still think Lebron could stay if they lose. Gut feeling. Cleveland means everything to him, and his situation isn’t horrible. He’s a smart guy. He’ll do what he thinks is best.)
  28. Boston fans will convince themselves this trade was good. If the trade was somehow reversed, they’d convince themselves the trade was bad. There’s no changing Boston’s optimism.
  29. My own opinion: Boston should not have traded Bradley, Thomas, or Crowder. They had other options. A starting lineup of Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradely, Gordon Hayward, Jae Crowder and Al Horford would be much better than the one they have now, in 2018 or 2019 (despite free agency complications).
  30. Opening Night will be insane.
  31. Lebron James will be insane
  32. Kyrie Irving could have one hell of a season.
  33. The Celtics seem to be the perfect situation for Irving. A talented team, a great coaching staff and system, a place where Kyrie will get to be “the guy” while still remaining on a competitive team(hopefully). Don’t be shocked if Irving ends up top 10 in MVP voting (be surprised if he is MVP)
  34. What’s going to happen to the 2k cover?
  35. It will be interesting to see how Thomas adapts to his new role. What will it be? How will he do? It seems like this is the least-covered part of this whole deal, but it’s hugely important.
  36. Thomas might have a very similar role to Irving, considering they are actually very similar players who performed similar tasks for their respective teams.
  37. How does Thomas feel about this? We got Irving’s opinion (happy) right away. The silence means something important, considering IT is usually pretty vocal about things (i.e. the eyes emojis fiasco around the trade deadline). Thomas loved Boston, but he also expressed a willingness to leave if they didn’t “roll out the brinks trucks” next summer.
  38. Boston media will chew up Irving as soon as he makes his first mistake.
  39. It means more tanking from Eastern Conference teams that realize they aren’t in a position to make these kinds of big moves.
  40. These J.R. Smith memes are going to continue to be great.
h/t @Daquan on Instagram

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